Item

Abstract

As it stands, the entanglement of markets and monetary policy has given the private sector considerable power over the state. But as Benjamin suggests in this interview, there are other ways for central banks to direct the economy besides merely as “lenders of last resort to an unsustainable status quo." The direction should be determined democratically, even if the short history of the ECB makes this goal seem far-fetched. Perhaps some hope can be found in the longer genealogy of asset manager capitalism, which Benjamin traces back to the 1930s – a time when conceptions of value and ownership were radically different than they are now.